Beer: Ratings & Reviews

Reviews by duracell:

500mL bottle. 10.5% ABV. Bottled on 19 April 2012. Described as an Imperial Black IPA.

A - Pours a pitch black color with a light brown head, very large and with an excellent retention for a 10.5% ABV! Very nice looking beer!

S - Lots of roasted malt, some notes of chocolate. The hop shows up later with a fresh character, piny and herbal, but quite moderate for the style.

T - Huge amount of malt, a bit of residual sugar. I pick out milk chocolate, some coffee. Aromatic hops join the other flavors pretty late to give a really enjoyable and balanced finish which lingers.

M - Very smooth, full body. Pretty sweet throughout the experience with just a moderate hop bitterness at the end. Although alcohol is discrete (particularly for this ABV!), it might cause the relatively dry finish.

O - Not really to style (I find it closer to a 'American' Imperial Stout) but overall an excellent beer with a good character! Besides, it was crazy how easily it was to drink this 500mL bottle at 10.5% ABV. A real success, in my opinion!

More User Reviews:

Bottle: Poured a pitch-black color ale with a dark brown foamy with good retention and some lacing. Aroma consists of roasted malt with light resin notes and light hoppy pine notes. Taste is also a mix between some huge roasted malt with light residual sugar notes with a medium to light resin hoppy finish. Body is full with nice creamy texture and good carbonation with no apparent alcohol. Not bad but seriously lacking in level of hops considering the style.

The color is black, very dark black. The head is brown in color, dense and tenacious. For a high ABV beer, the head is amazing!!! The aroma is intense. Caramel notes, some sirup, hops and roasted malts. Quite a mix!! Maybe too much, it doesn't make the beer interesting. Strange. Also, it feels retry sirupy... Too much IMO. Taste is roasted malts dominated. Some piny hops. The finish is quite bitter... The bitterness is lite at the beginning but it's get to you slowly. Full bodied. Sweet. It doesn't appear well balanced to me and it would be tremendous if it was. Not bad, but not great too.

T: A very strange flavor. There's a lot of soy sauce with some brown sugar and big molasses notes. Dark chocolate is pervasive. There's a moderate bitterness with notes of pine. Coffee is light but evident throughout. The soy sauce is very strong and the most apparent attribute. There's some metallic character and a good amount of booze in the oxidized finish. This combination is strange and horrific enough to be interesting at first, but one quickly loses interest and it simply becomes horrific.

M: Upper medium body with high carbonation. The mouthfeel is creamy and sticky.

Overall: The label describes this as an Imperial Black IPA but it tastes like a poorly aged Imperial Stout. Not recommended. Actually, try it if you can try it for free. I'd like to cook with this.